Fire escape elevator ladder



March 2, 1943. LGRAHAM FIRE ESCAPE ELEVATOR LADDER Filed Dec. 4, 1941 8gsaiah Graham.

attorney Patented Mar. 2, 1943 UNHTED STATES T @FHQE 2,312,333 emsESCAPE ELEVATOR LADDER Isaiah Graham, ()maha, Nebr.

Application December 4, 1941, Serial No. 421,678

1 Claim. (Cl. 2278) This invention relates to ladders and moreparticularly to fire escapes.

It is an object of the invention to provide a fire escape which may bereadily leaned against an exterior wall of a burning building useful fora plurality of purposes including ordinary use as a ladder and use forreadily lowering occupants of upper floors of a burning building safelyto the ground, the means for said latter use also including means forelevating firemen to the upper end of said ladder.

Another object of the invention is to provide braking means forregulating a lowering of an escape car employed.

Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will beunderstood from the following detailed description thereof.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a front vertical elevation of a fire escape elevator ladderdepicting the preferred embodiment of the invention, certain portionsthereof being broken away and others showing partially in section.

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the said embodim'ent.

It is well known that heretofore it has often happened, at times when aconventional ladder is leaned against a wall of a burning building, suchas the upper floors of a hotel or the like for providing a means ofescape of occupants, that the latter are often too excited or otherwiseincapacitated to avail themselves of said ladder for escape and withoutthe assistance of firemen, whereby it has often happened that a firemanmust first climb the ladder for carrying an occupant of a burningbuilding down the ladder. For said carrying purposes most firemen areequipped with snap hooks attached to their belts and convey a similarharness to the top of said ladder which they secure aroundoccupantslater attaching said snap'hooks to said harnesses wherebyfiremen can use both hands for descending the ladder while people aresecurel'y attached to said belts. The said present practice requiresfiremen whose said rescue efforts often could be better utilized forother purposes. Also it has often happened that where a person is beingtransported by a fireman down a ladder without said harness that ininstances where said ladder is covered with ice both the fireman andsaid person have slipped from the ladder and become injured. Also it hashappened that a fireman upon reaching the top of the ladder intending toharness a person, as above described, has found that throughinadvertence he is not provided with said harness whereby numerousaccidents have been occasioned.

It has also happened that at times when persons have been strapped orattached to firemen in the above described manner that said personsduring the excitement of fire and descent of a ladder cling to theladder or impede firemens efiorts on their behalf, and the presentinvention aims to obviate said undesirable prior practice by providingan escape means assembled with a particular ladder construction wherebythe combination may be used advantageously for rescuing people fro-m theupper fioors of burning buildings, the ladder of which may, at desiredtimes be used in a conventional manner and solely for ladder purposes.

Referring now to the drawing for a more particular description it!indicates generally an elongated ladder having oppositely disposed side'rails H and I2 secured together by means of transversely disposedspaced apart rung steps [3. As best shown in Figure 1, the lower ends ofthe side rails are spaced apart a greater distance than the upper endsthereof'whereby said rails converge towards each other from the lowerwider end of the ladder toward its upper end. The ladder H] is of anyselected 1ength,.sufiicient to extend from the ground indicated at fateand above the windows of one or more floors of a building.

The upper end of the ladder is provided with oppositely disposed arms 15suitably secured to the top of the ladder, said arms being connectedtogether by a transversely disposed strut 16, the latter being adaptedto contact with the wall of a building for holding the upper end of theladder a suitable distance away from said wall.

Between the rails H .and I2 and secured to the ladder by any suitablemeans, such as the U-bolts H, a guide track rail I8 is provided, saidrail preferably being L-shaped in cross section and having at the lowerend thereof a detent IQ for purposeslater described.

Adjacent the upper end of the ladder between and carried by the siderails II and i2 thereof a shaft 2!) is provided, said shaft beingjournalled in sockets 2!, the latter being oppositely disposed andcarried bysaid rails. Medially disposed between said rails upon theshaft 29 a pulley wheel 22 is pivotally mounted.

A rope, cable or similar flexible strand 23 eX- tends over the pulley22, one end thereof being provided with a hook 24 shown in dottedl'ines'in Figure 1, said hook being attached to an eye 24" secured to alater described escape car. The opposite end of the cable 23 is coiledaround a winding-drum 25, the latter being horizontally disposed andaxially secured to a shaft 26 which extends through said drum. One endof said shaft 26 is journalled in a socket 21, the latter being securedto the side rail I2 adjacent the lower end of the ladder. The other endof the shaft 26 is journalled through said side rail ll.

One end of the drum 25 is provided with a toothed wheel 28 rigidly andaxially secured thereto. or to the shaft 26, the teeth of said wheelbeing adapted to engage with a detent dog 29 the latter being pivotallymounted as at 38 to the side rail l I and it will be understood that attimes when said dog is in a raised position that the drum is then freefrom said dog and that at times when said dog is engaged with a tooth ofthe wheel 28 revoluble movements of the drum in one direction andcorresponding movements of the cable 23 are prevented. 7

The outer end of the shaft 26 is provided with a crank 3| for revolvingthe drum 25 at times when said dog permits the same and it will beunderstood, for long ladders and heavy equipment that a worm gear'and anelectric motor may also be employed for revolving the shaft 26 and saiddrum.

Between the crank 3| and the rail ll braking means are provided forfurther governing movements of the drum 25, cable 23 and said escapecar, said means including a brake-drum 32 axially disposed about andrigidly secured to the shaft 26. A flexible brake band 33 extends aboutthe perimeter of the brake drum 32 having an end which is attached as'at34 to the rail H and a. free end 35 which is'pivotally attached as at 36to a bell-crank-lever 31, the latter being pivotally mounted as at 38onv the side rail l I.

An operator may place his hand or foot on the outer end of thebell-crank-lever 31 and apply pressure thereto for contracting the brakeband 33 and causing the latter to snugly engage with the brake-drum 32for governing movements of the winding-drum 25, cable 23 and said escapewhereby said car is attached to the cables 23, 42 and 43 during use.

To the back wall 5i vertically spaced apart notched guide blocks 52 aresecured, by any suitable means, which, as best illustrated by the dottedlines in Figure 1, receive within the notches thereof the guide track l8whereby dur-- ing ascending and descending movements of the escape carthe latter is prevented from transverse movements with respect to theladder l0.

Also secured to said back wall, by any suitable means, and adjacent tothe upper and lower ends of said car, four journal bolsters 53 areprovided, being oppositely disposed and spaced apart in pairs.

Between and journalled through the lowermost pairs of bolsters 53 ashaft 54 is disposed and a similar shaft 55 is provided between andthrough the uppermost pairs of bolsters.

As shown in Figure 1, the escape car is wider than the Width of theladder l8 and since the side rails of the ladder are convergent,elongated pairs of rollers 56 are oppositely disposed and pivotallymounted on the lower shaft 54. Similarly oppositely disposed elongatedpairs of rollers 51 are provided on the upper shaft 55, said rollersbeing of sufficient length whereby some portions of the perimetersthereof bear against the side rails of the ladder In at all times duringascending and descending movements of the escape car, said elongation ofthe rollers being complemental to the convergence upwardly of said siderails for engagement with said side rails during said movements of theescape car.

The car is provided with a bottom 58, oppositely disposed side walls 59,a front wall 68, the lower portion of the latter being provided with adoor 6| which, as best shown in Figure 1, is hingedly secured as at 62to said car, said door being provided with a latch 63 and a notchedlatch-strike nals, the latter being secured to the oppositely disposedside rails H and I 2 for permitting rotary movements of the shaft 39.

Oppositely disposed pulleys 40 and 4| are keyed to the shaft 39 andflexible cables 42 and 43, respectively, extend over the pulleys 40 and4|, the ends of said cables'each'being provided with a hook, the latterin use being engaged with complemental eyes '45. The eyes 45 are, asbest shown in Figure 2, secured to the escape car by any suitable means.The other ends of the cables 42 and 43 are secured to rings 46.

A platform 41 isprovided preferably in the form of an iron slab wherebythe mass and weight thereof serves to, counterbalance the Weight of theescape car. Opposit'e ends of the platform are attached to invertedV-shaped sling elements 48 and 49. the latter being respectivelyattached to the oppositely disposed rings as and to the cables 43 and42, respectively.

The escape car is of rectangular oblong configuration being generallyindicated at fiil, having a back wall 5! to the upper end of which theeyes 45 an 24 are secured by any suitable means Y or keeper 64.

The car further preferably includes a trans versely disposed partitionplatform 65 approximately midway between the upper and lower ends ,ing66 which permits entrance to the lower compartment of the car throughsaid opening.

The upper'end of the escape-car is provided with a cover 61, the latterbeing pivotally secured to said end by means of hinges 68.

Within the car a step-rung 69 is provided for facilitating entrance ofoccupants into the lower compartment thereof from said upper compartmentand through the opening 66 of the platform 65.

Within the car and above the platform '65 oppositely disposed treadles18 are provided, the latter being pivotally attached by means ofsuitable hinges or the like H to the platform 65. The free ends of thetreadles 10 are each provided with a rod 12, the lower ends of which arepivotally attached as at 13 to said treadles, the

- upper ends of said rods being similarly pivot- Adjacent the hinges Hand underneath eachtreadle 10 there is secured, by any suitable means,to each of said treadles a rod 15, said rods extending horizontallyoutwardly from said treadles and through elongated slots 16 providedthrough the side walls 59 of the car, said slots permitting said rods 15to move upwardly and downwardly at times when the treadles are moved.The outer ends of each of the rods 15 are provided with reach-rods H,the lower ends of the latter being provided with eyes for pivotallyattaching said reach rods to said rods 15, as best shown in Figure 2.

The upper ends of the reach rods 11 are similarly provided with eyes fora pivotal attachment to one of the arms of bell-crank-levers 18. Thebell-crank-levers are connected together, as best illustrated by thedotted lines in Figure 1, whereby said cranks move in unison withrespect to the reach rods 11 and treadles Ill at times when a weight isapplied to either one of the treadles 10. The connection between thebellcranks consists of a crank-throw 19, the latter extending across themajor portion of the upper end of the rear wall of the car and as thusdescribed it will be understood that at times when a treadle H1 is moveddownwardly that said crank throw I9 is thereby moved from the normalposition thereof as shown in Figure 2 toward the guide-rail 8.

Adjacent the upper end of the side rails I I and I2 and pivotallyattached as at 88 to the inner surfaces of said rails verticallyswingable detents 8| are provided, said detents normally being urgedoutwardly by means of springs 82 carried by the upper portions of saidrails as shown in Figure 2.

The outward movement of the detents 8| is limited by means of stop lugs83 which contact with upper notched portions of said detents at timeswhen the latter move sufliciently outward.

Secured to the rear wall 5| and closely adjacent to the upper end ofsaid wall, a pair of oppositely disposed stationary detents 84 areprovided which are in vertical alignment with the above describedswingable detents 8| carried by the ladder whereby at times when theescape car is raised vertically sufiiciently said stationary detents 84engage with the vertically disposed swingable detents 8| and press thelatter towards their springs 82 and against the urge of said springs ina manner whereby at the time said stationary detents 84 become disposedabove the swingable detents 8| the latter then become urged outwardlyaway from said ladder by their springs 82 and disposed at said timeunder the stationary detents 84 for detaining the escape car at the topof the ladder until it is released for descent.

At the time it is desired that the escape car 5|] be freed from theswingable detents 8| and for said purpose either one or both of thetreadles I0 are actuated, said actuation causing the crank-throw 19 tobe moved towards the ladder and against the swingable detents 8| forforcing the latter towards the ladder and against the urge of theirsprings 82 in a manner whereby said stationary detent 84 become freedfrom said swingable detents 8| for permitting the escape car to descend.

In operation at times when the ladder I8 is placed inclinedly and thupper end thereof is held away from th wall of a building by the arms I5there is an appreciable space between the lower end of the ladder andsaid wall which permits the platform 41 to freely ascend correspondinglywith respect to descending movements of the escape car. Assuming thatthe escape car has been raised by the above described means to the topof the ladder and that the swingable detents 8| are engaged with theStationary detents 84, the cover 69 at said time being open, occupantsenter said car and upon disengagement of said detents the car then ispermitted to descend gradually or fast as occasion may require, saidmovement being governed by the brake means including the brake band 32and when the car reaches the lower end of the guide track IS the detentI9 at said lower end engages with said car for preventing furtherdownward movement thereof; whereupon the door BI is opened and egress ofthe occupants permitted. During said descending movement of the caradditional firemen may be readily elevated by weight of said car anddescending occupants, said firemen standing on the platform l5 for saidpurpose.

As thus described it will be understood that during loading of theescape car that in the event occupants of said car prematurely actuateeither one or both of the trip treadles 10 thereby releasing the car fora descent that, at times when the firemen stationed at the bottom of theladder do not desire said car to descend, said firemen may prevent thesame by means of employing the braking bell-crank lever 31.

From the foregoing description it is thought to be obvious that anescape ladder constructed in accordance with my invention isparticularly well adapted for use by reason of the convenience andfacility with which it may be assembled and operated, and it will alsobe obvious that my invention is susceptible of some change andmodification without departing from the principles and spirit thereofand for this reason I do not wish it to be understood as limiting myselfto the precise arrangement and formation of the several parts hereinshown in carrying out my invention in practice except as claimed.

I claim:

A fire escape apparatus comprising a ladder adapted to be leaned againstan outer wall of a building, said ladder having side rails convergentlydisposed toward the top thereof, a guide track disposed between saidside rails, a pulley at the upper end of said ladder, an escape carhaving guide blocks for sliding engagement with said guide rail, awinding drum at the lower end of said ladder, a cable disposed over saidpulley having an end attached to said drum and an opposite end securedto said car for raising said car, an axle at each end of said car, anelongated roller at each end of each axle for engagement with saidconvergent side rails during sliding movements of said car, and meansfor governing th speed of a descent of said car along said ladder.

ISAIAH GRAHAM.

